Real Madrid: Pele sends message to Vinicius Junior

Vinicius Junior has been Real Madrid’s best player this season till now. The Brazilian’s raw talent and potential was always clear to see but he enjoyed a breakout campaign last time around, when he finally put it all together. He was no longer just a dribbling machine but also had end product as well and as a result, established himself as one of the best players in the world.

This season, Vinicius has picked up right where he had left off, when he scored the Champions League-winning goal vs Liverpool. Unfortunately, there has not been a lot of talk about his football though and most of it has been concentrated on his antics on the pitch, mostly him dancing after scoring.

A lot of players, fans and a large section of the media, have felt that him dancing after scoring is disrespectful to the opposition.

Dancing celebrations are nothing new in football though. It is a part of the Brazilian footballing culture and legends like Neymar and Ronaldinho have used it over their careers. And now, a lot of people are coming out in support of Vinicius, with one of them being all-time great, Pele.

Real Madrid: Pele sends message to Vinicius Jr

Posting an image of Vinicius on his Instagram, Pele wrote:

"Football is joy. It’s a dance. It’s more than that. It’s a real party. Although, unfortunately, racism still exists, we will not allow that to stop us from continuing to smile. And we will continue to fight racism every day in this way: fighting for our right to be happy and respected. #BailaViniJr"

To be honest, one would not think that a player’s celebration would lead to a storm in the media, but it has.

One can only hope that people start concentrating on Vinicius as a player soon, because he has been exceptional and should be a Ballon d’Or candidate based on current form.

Of course, there has been talk of him trying to play mind games with the opposition players as well throughout the match, which could be a topic of discussion but his dancing or how he celebrates a goal should not be at all.